Judges typically grant arrest warrants when the debtors have failed to show up for court dates or failed to make court-ordered payments.

Of course, the reason debtors have failed to make court-ordered payments is often the same reason they didn't pay their debts in the first place: They don't have any money.

In September, a 53 year-old woman named Vivian Joy was stopped for a broken tail-light in Champaign, Illinois. And then, because the cops discovered that she still hadn't paid $2,200 to a collection agency, she was cuffed and carted off to jail.

Joy's excuse?

She doesn't have any money.

Jailing debtors for not paying their debts is apparently especially popular in Illinois.

(This practice, needless to say, is preposterous. If people can't pay their debts and have no prospect of being able to pay their debts, they should declare bankruptcy. And the debts should be written off. Companies don't go to jail when they default. Neither should people.)

"....most people who don't pay their debts are people who have gotten themselves into a whole heap of trouble, one way or another, and can't pay their debts. They've gotten divorced, which has suddenly doubled the major expenses without also doubling the incomes of the former spouses. Or they've gotten sick, which means not just medical bills (these are often negotiable or in extremis, forgivable) but income loss and new ancillary expenses. They made the mistake of having a child with special needs. Or they lost a job because, in case you haven't noticed, the economy is not so good right now."

"Yes, they may have gotten to this place by some poor decision making about who to marry, what chemical substances or foods they put into their body, how much debt to take on relative to their income, or how much to save. But these decisions are legal--as they should be.

Are we really down to slapping cuffs on people because they unwisely decided to borrow too much money? If so, I'm with the progressives--we should also be heading down to the finance company and slapping cuffs on the guy who approved the loan. Fair is fair...."